So after I was done writing my last post in which I interviewed myself, I determined I would have a couple of people send me an email Interview. The rules were set as such: send your questions including your follow-up questions. Include tough questions for me to answer. If you ask me 50 questions about the 1987-88 NFC Championship game I will kill you. So my interviewer is Quinn Jordan he hosts a radio show called Right on Q on the The Sports Chronicles Radio Network. He is an author for route4sports.com thesportschronline.com and Washington Deadskins fan. So with that all being let the carnage ensue!!!
Q: First Joel, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to interview you. With that being said, let’s do this!! ME: you are welcome
You live in Minnesota. You are a huge
Vikings fan. Was becoming a Vikings fan a rite of passage?
Yes I was Born Purple. My dad loves the
Purple People Eaters and being a fan in the 80′s with Chris Doleman, Keith Millard, Hank Thomas and
Al Noga on the D line and
Scott Studwell at mike and
Joey Browner at safety and Carl Lee as your best DB, I grew up know Defense and what made the Vikings go. Half times during Vikings games was me outside throwing a Nerf football around and “playing defense” with those guys in the back yard. No joke this happened every Sunday.
Q: Who is your favorite Vikings player of all time?
That is tough just to name one there are 4 guys that come to mind Chris Carter,
Randy Moss, John Randle, and Joey Browner all come to mind. If I have to pick one, it is Randy Moss just edging out CC who is an awesome guy and a good role model to young players like Randy .
Q: Why?
Randy was a draft I was really watching and was becoming less of a novice fan and homer, I actually was reading and seeing scouting reports and I saw 4 or 5 full games Randy Played in at Marshall. You could tell he was simply different as far as wide outs go. Before the draft I told a new friend and Packer fan that if we get him the Packers will be drafting DBs next year. I had no idea he would rewrite the history books for rookies but I knew he was good. Randy always played with passion and ran to the beat of a different drum, which is something I like. Sure he said stuff like I play when I wanna play, which people I believe started to dislike him for that and give him more flack than what he deserved. Bar none in my eye he is the Greatest receiver of all time. He scored at a clip that no one besides Michael Irvin scored at the guy could just flat-out win you games.
Q: Who is your least favorite Vikings player of all time?
Darrin Nelson
Q: Why?
Really Quinn you ask me why? He fumbled away a Super bowl and yes the Vikings would have won. How dare you bring up the Redskins.
Q: The Vikings had their most success in the 1970s, making it to 4 Super Bowls, while playing in an outdoor stadium. Do you think that there is a correlation between the team playing indoors at the Metrodome and the lack of success since the 1970s?
No I don’t see that being the case as much as when Les Steckel ruined the team for a year before Bud Grant came back and gave Jerry Burns the job. I believe the coaching has a lot to do with the sport of football more so than any other sport and if the coaches can’t get it done the players won’t get it done. The knee in 98 and 41-0 were just bad coaching displays. 09 12 men in the huddle and a coach the got less out of more talent than anyone ever has. The next year was proof of that. we returned 18 of 22 starters.
Q: In your opinion SHOULD the Vikings new stadium be an outdoor venue like Chicago and Green Bay?
I could care less but give me a retractable if you are giving me a choice.
Christian Ponder will not with a ring as a starter. He can not make the long out throws to the right side of the field. He is proving he is inaccurate. He makes too many unwise decisions with the ball. He is a bottom tier starting QB in the league. On draft day I must have tweeted 20-100 times my displeasure in that pick when we clearly needed to improve our defense and we should have gotten Andy Dalton in the 2nd round. Ponder is a game manager that frankly doesn’t do it all that well. If you can fluster him early he will not be good at all. He throws too many interceptions to be a game manager, and is not a game breaker at the QB position. I know a few that will disagree with me, but you are wrong and don’t watch every game like I do.
Q: What would you like to see the Vikings do at the quarterback position?
I am okay with unknown guys. I see a raw guy like
McLeod Bethel-Thompson as the future. He has a huge arm and can make all the throw. I think we should Draft high for another QB or call number 4 for one more year.
Q: Ok. That enough Vikings questions. Notice how I didn’t ask any questions about the 1987 NFC Championship game?
Well technically you did via my answer
Q: I know that you play slow pitch softball. What would you say is your favorite softball memory?
I have a lot of memories playing softball. I have play on some of the worst teams and some of the better teams inn state. I have 3 that are up there. The first one that stands out was a consolation game when I was 18 and my dad had convinced the team manager to pick me up to play Short Stop. We ended up in an extra innings affair with 2 outs me at the to bat with first base open. The manager said we need you. I said “I’m going to win it right now” I slashed a walk off to the gap in left center with my Dad on deck. Its up there quite high in my mind. 2 Seasons ago I had a horrible slump and couldn’t buy a hit. I started the season off hitting into 3 double plays in 2 games and was STRUUUUUUGGGGGGLING . I ended that slump in the 2nd to last week of league play in the 2nd game going 4 for 4 with a walk off measured off the fence with no knocks left. Those 2 are very high up there but 11 years ago August 12th I was play the first game of a tournament with my now wife coming to watch me play for the first time. In the 6th in we were down by 1, I was getting sent home and the 3rd base coach changed his mind yelled back I stopped and gruesomely tore my ACL. I didn’t stop playing I switch from short stop to pitch the rest of the tournament and hit .875 for the tournament while getting our team enough points for worlds where we took 4th and I finished the season playing before having surgery in the winter.
Disc Golf is like golf minus the golf clubs and golf balls, you replace that with Discs (Frisbee is a trademarked name thus Disc Golf) and chained baskets are your holes. It is play similarly to golf, to finish a hole your disc need to end in the basket just like a ball going into the hole. Discs are specialized much like irons and woods utility clubs, disc golfers have Drivers midrange and putters and disc that do different things for different abilities. The best thing I can say is check out so;me of the clips on Youtube. Search for guys like Gregg Barsby and Ken “the champ” Climo and my guy Will Schusterick to name a few of the pros.
Q: How did you learn of this game?
A guy from work told me about it and taught me a little and I went on from there to start playing once in a while to all the time during the summer to playing year round in the snow and this year at night, yes you heard me at night. it is called Glow and it is more fun to play at night than during the day. We use a brand called Throw lite up here in MN that are amazing and light your disc well.
Q: You are a huge MMA fan. Who is your favorite fighter?
I am glad you said MMA not UFC first of all. My favorite current fighter that isn’t retired has to be Jens “Little Evil” Pulver great story watch his documentary Driven.
The guy that is in limbo and would take a fight if you gave it to him is Renzo Gracie.
Retired fighter Kazushi “the Gracie Hunter” Sakaraba that guy never stopped fighting he was a warrior well past his prime. And a guy you can get Renzo to swear about on twitter.
Q: If you could ask UFC owner Dana White one question what would that question be?
There are about 500 questions I would love to ask Dana White all serious with me being a huge MMA geek. But the question i would ask would be this. UFC start with no weight limitations then went to 3 weights to even the playing field for fighters and to get the sport to conform to fighting forms in the USA. Would you ever pursue creating an open weight class division for all fighter to fight for that belt?
What do you think Dana’s answer would be?
Are you bleeping kidding me. These bleeping weight classes are here for a reason. No way I would Bleeping do this. What type of bleeping questions was that?
Q: Are you a fan of boxing?
I was until MMA back in the beginning UFC 1
Q: In your opinion what does boxing need to do to save their sport?
Well Mayweather Fighting Pac would help. Removing Don King and Bob Arem and any other corrupt promoters from the sport would do a lot. Have exciting fights no boring patty cake matches. Someone knock a fool out in a big time fight. Find the Next Mike Tyson, or Ali.
Q: The NHL has currently locked out its players. What are the reasons as to why we don’t have hockey right now?
The owners LOCKED the players out. The owners much like in football are biding their time for the young kids that don’t have the huge deals to start to hurt. They are being unreasonable. I believe the players will not risk canceling a season and will get screwed in the CBA somehow.
Q: Will there be NHL hockey this season?
Depends who you listen to. I listen to Lou Nanne and he thinks it will get done. I truly hope he is right
Q: Can the NHL recover if there is another lost season?
Yes, they may need to relocate a team or 3 to more lucrative markets, like Seattle and Quebec for starters.
Q: How can the NHL make their game a better TV product?
Good announcers. A lot of fans are novice fans don’t know much about the game. I think they need to commentate

Disc golf throw (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
more like a class room for a few years to understand the game, unless you are in Minnesota we don’t need that. HDTV makes the game better a red line 45 degree camera may be cool depending on how low the NHL would let you put the camera over the ice.
Q: If you were the Commissioner of the NHL what changes would you make to help make hockey more mainstream?
Well it will never be a full mainstream sport. People in states like Texas don’t care about hockey and they won the cup down there. I really don’t think the south gets winter sports.
Q: I see that you have a wordpress account. What made you want to start writing?
Nothing made me start writing. I always enjoyed writing about things I like. I reached out to Glenn Erby @thacover2 on twitter and Turron Davenport @TDAVENPORT88 and asked if I should start writing this and if they would read what I wrote. I got some great encouragement from them and you got the “King’s Crown is Cracked” as my first piece.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
5 years is a long time. I will be married to Elise for 15 years. My oldest will be 12 middle will be 9 and the youngest 5. Between baseball with the boys and most likely me coaching and playing softball which I don’t intend to ever give up. Riding mountain bikes hopefully one of my destination trips that I have wanted to take will pan out. Playing Disc golf and being able to compete in advance tournaments would be great. As far as jobs go who knows what will happen as long as I can provide for my family I am happy.
Q: Excellent. Well Joel, I have to be honest. This is the first scripted interview that I have ever done. How did you like the questions?
I loved it, Thank you again for doing this. I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I did.